I find cashier lines to be too slow because of the socialization so I always go to the self checkouts.
A lot of old ladies will go to cashiers and have ridiculous questions and requests and you’re standing there with your 3 items dying inside.
Around me it’s Indian people arguing about the price of every other item.
@NathanielThomas @grte
So seniors with questions are the only persons slowing down check-outs???Sometimes the cashiers themselves are slow and scan items like they’re regretting every life decision they ever made.
What I love about selfcheckout is I go at my pace, as fast or slow as I want to be.
Sometimes the cashiers themselves are slow and scan items like they’re regretting every life decision they ever made.
Such a good description of my local cashiers’
You could always switch jobs with them for 2 weeks just to show them how it should be done.
I’ve never seen a cashier who’s not a trainee who’s not faster than self checkout.
But that is the problem: when I go to a cashier I feel rushed to bag everything and pay in the time it takes a professional to scan everything. When I go to a self-checkout register, items are scanned exactly at the same rate that I bag them.
At the same time, there is hardly any waiting for self-checkout lines. In other words, for my taste they are better in almost every way.
As soon as groceries having dedicated baggers (or cashiers who bag stuff for you) ceased to be a thing, I felt that pressure too.
People that make stupid assumptions slow the lines more.
@sndmn
Good grief! I do not like waiting in lines either. But to say an employee who serves the public should not speak to that public is pretty absurd. And yes, there are fast and slow checkers, just like there is variation in us all.You know who always checks out my groceries exactly as fast as I want? Myself.
@baggins
Whatever makes you happy in your life……
Speaking as someone with a physical handicap, self-checkout can be very difficult… especially with a larger amount of items or heavy things
Even opening finicky bags causes me a lot of frustration, because my dexterity is bad some days. Continuously bending down to lift, bag, & load stuff into the cart? Very very bad.
Local grocery stores in my area have been cutting back on cashiers, and it is really causing me issues.
I’ve seen old ladies struggling a lot, too! They probably have it much worse than I do! It’s probably a thing they so they don’t have to pay more workers, but those workers are sorely needed!
There are no more cashier at all ? Usually, there’s a self checkout and cashiers, not just self checkout.
There’s sometimes one cashier, but apparently it is only self-checkout past 6 or 7pm. And often then, they’ll just have self-checkout only at random times.
I’ve seen them only down to 2 cashiers at absolute peak busyness. No more than that. It’s madness.
I actually prefer self checkouts. It’s a simple task and going grocery shopping is one of my moments of solitude in the week, I don’t wanna talk to anyone that I don’t have to.
Yeah but you’re probably able bodied. Self checkouts are a big burden for the elderly or disabled.
I am not suggesting that we remove normal checkouts. I am just saying I like the option of having self checkout everywhere.
I live by a food basic. Before they implemented self checkout there used to be a pretty long line at peak hours and weekends. After they added self checkout, there is pretty much never a line anymore. The most people I’ve had to wait behind was like 3. The difference was extremely noticeable.
There are probably some really terrible implementations of self checkout in some stores or locations but when it’s done right it seems pretty good.
I agree completely, lines have gotten much shorter everywhere I’ve seen with self checkout.
Dont forget the fact most stores refuse to hire the staff needed to run the place smoothly. Why pay eight cashiers hourly wages when you can just have two cashiers?
There’s a BofA branch near me that has a dozen windows. I’ve never seen more than two clerks. Whenever I see something like that I remember that there used to be a time when corporations actually cared about providing good service. That time is long since gone.
Also people used to go to the bank so much there were big lines. Now it’s online.
Every store I go to that is not a mom and pop shop has several cash registers but only one or two in use, even on weekends.
Do I get a discount for checking myself out? Unless it’s 1-2 items and the normal line is full - it is cashier every time for me.
Same. I will go to the cashier even when it’s somewhat inconvenient to me just because I despise the idea that the grocery store is making me be the cashier for free.
Succinctly: they’re making it more annoying for me as a customer while simultaneously not providing someone with a job.
I mean, they’re also “making you” pick up your items off the shelf, just like the gas station “makes you” pump your own gas.
That’s why if something “fails” to scan or you input some produce at a cheaper price “on accident”, then it’s the store’s fault - you’re not a cashier, just a customer doing self-checkout.
Just steal, that’s the discount.
Honestly, it’s immoral but yeah. I tried scanning something out of my pile of 15 items at Dollarama. It didn’t register after I slapped it against the scanner 5 times so I was like whatever. I was too tired to bother so I just put it in the other side. I wasn’t trained on how to use it properly.
What value does a real human provide you though?
They’re a skilled worker that has memorized the codes for the different types of potatoes, a skill I am unlikely to learn.
I guess it depends on the machine, but I don’t have to memorize codes. You can search for the item by name when it’s time to weigh it.
Why do you want to do that when someone else is getting paid to do it?
If I can get home faster, it might be wort it. Not always, but sometimes. Specially if I’m picking up a small set of items that are easy to scan.
I don’t have to do the thing myself. They’re doing it for me. Unless I’m misunderstanding your question.
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I love self checkout, at least when it’s implemented well.
As far as I can tell there isn’t a single one that isn’t a steaming pile of shit. Where have you found acceptable ones?
That said I’m against them because it reduces the employment that a business requires while pushing the work onto the customers. Unless they are giving me a discount for using the self checkout you are effectively being an employee for free for the store.
you are effectively being an employee for free for the store.
You already accepted being an employee of the store when you decided to enter the warehouse to pick the items off the shelf yourself.
The only question is: Can you clock out faster if your co-worker helps you process the items you picked or will it be faster if you do it all by yourself?
My local store let’s me scan with my phone as I shop. When I get to the checkout I scan a QR code, it transfers everything to the register asks if I have anything else. Occasionally it’ll have someone come over and scan a few items to spot check, but not super often. Then I pay and leave.
Usually takes maybe 30 seconds to check out.
As some other people have said, I like the ones where you can scan with your own device or a handheld one they provide. However, I don’t mind the regular ones where you scan everything at checkout either, though that’s definitely easier given that I live alone and in walking distance, so I don’t need to buy that many things at once. I should note that I mostly saw the scan as you go types in Europe, though a Metro store in Canada also had the portable scanners.
I like self-checkout especially when there’s lot of people and you have 1 or 2 items, it’s convenient, for me. But as written in the article, someone in need like this woman, needs a cashier lane. I’m not against self, but all stores should have at least one lane with cashier, always, for people in need.
I don’t appreciate stores trying to force me to do the cashier’s job.
I also don’t appreciate them trying to pull the rug out from under the economy. If there’s one thing my country does not need, it’s millions more homeless people.
I don’t appreciate stores trying to force me to do the cashier’s job.
But you don’t mind the fact that they have you doing the warehouse picker’s job?
I also don’t appreciate them trying to pull the rug out from under the economy. If there’s one thing my country does not need, it’s millions more homeless people.
And maybe the first millions wouldn’t be homeless if you weren’t so keen to take their warehouse picking jobs. Once upon a time it was a respectable profession. Why do you care so little about them?
Before I answer, first you need to explain what a warehouse picker is, because I’ve never heard of that before.
The person who works in the warehouse to pick the items off the shelf when an order is placed. You know, the job you were conned into doing when you enter one of these warehouse-style stores that we are talking about.
It wasn’t always that way. Historically, you would place your order at the front counter and a diligent worker would work behind the scenes to gather your request. Some businesses still operate this way, to be sure, but it has largely gone the way of the dodo. It is generally more profitable when the customer does the work.
Yeah, and people are apparently not super pumped about being warehouse pickers either because online ordering is only going up.
Unless I’m mistaken, all online retailers of non-digital goods operate that way, so that job is far from extinct.
This commercial was made at least 17 years ago. This is what we need. We have the technology. We just need the price to come down.
Uniqlo stores around me almost have this implemented. You don’t scan the individual items, you just place your basket on the machine and it somehow knows every item in there. Super fast and convenient. I think it’s only a matter of time.
It scared the hell out of me the first time because it somehow knew what I had in my arms and I didn’t know what to scan to check out. But the items kept appearing and I didn’t know if they were actually mine or not and it was a very creepy black mirror-esque experience for me.
Great store though, really impressed.
I was just at the grocery store tonight and saw a new shopping cart, I thought it was a touchscreen to serve up ads and thought fuck that why the fuck would anyone want that, decided to go take a look at them and it’s kinda the same idea as the vid, a clunkier version of course
I don’t like self checkouts.
I don’t like fiddling with the thing, I don’t like how they lay the interface out (it’s designed to not be efficient, and there’s always so many clicks to pay), I don’t like entering vegetable UPC codes, I don’t like touching the screen 100 other people touched without it being cleaned, and I don’t like feeling like I’m being watched, and I don’t like context switching between scanning, choosing, and bagging.
I just want to load my items onto a belt, the cashier scans them and enters codes, then I bag them. I’ll simply say no to donating and tap my card and leave. Simple.
Most stores near me don’t let you use the self checkout with more than a basket, but then they will not have anyone at any of the normal checkouts while having 3-4 employees just chilling “watching” the self checkouts.
Most self-checkouts range from mildly annoying to downright unusable. Except Home Depot. Home Depot self checkouts are wonderful.
They even give you the nice handheld scanner.
Walmart ones here generally work ok, the worst seem to be Dollarama which bitch at you about everything. Like this piece of tissue I bought didn’t weight properly so now I have to wait for an employee every other item.
I don’t mind there being a self-checkout, but for the love of everything good in this world, these companies need to stop asking 21 questions when you use one! “Do you want to apply to a credit card?”, “Do you want to donate?”, “Did you want a receipt emailed?”, “Did you want to fill out a survey?”, “How many bags did you use?”, etc.
And if it’s a self-checkout at Walmart, expect to have 10 available, but only 2 working and three staff overlooking them…
Omfg I ran into this at shoppers. Its usually fine at grocery stores but shoppers self checkout is the worst. I think I counted 8 prompts when I used it last time.
Ironically, the local Walmart has been closing them all later in the day so that people must use cashier’s, presumably due to increased theft etc
At the self-checkout at the Walmart near me a little man would go around asking if we want to save on groceries by signing up for their credit card.
The fourth or fifth trip there that he did this I had to get a bit ruder until he finally grabbed the self-checkout and clicked the credit card opt-in and I had to tell him to fuck off. He acted shocked but dude I go to self-checkout to avoid human interaction, not be sold a bullshit credit card only a teenager would fall for.
Bullshit.
I know it sounds like a /r/thathappened but it was one of those situations where it built up over several trips to the store of this guy harrassing me to the point where I didn’t want to shop at Walmart anymore. I am averse to confrontation so when he took over my self-checkout to sign up for the credit card I was like, dude fuck off, go away. And he was a bit shocked and acted like I was being dramatic but it was because I hadn’t been more politely forceful in our earlier trips.
The faces of the execs when ‘shrinkage’ goes up: :O
